Graziano Miai

In the 1970s, there was a quest for music. We traveled across Europe in search of the latest releases.

THE BEGINNING OF THE DJ CAREER: “I began my career in 1969 at Space Electronic. Space was the first truly international nightclub in Florence. It was frequented by people from all over the world: white, black, Australians, Americans, Swiss… A trendy, ultra-modern venue with light effects, lasers, and mirror balls.” Space was the brilliant idea of two brothers, architecture students at the time, who created an exact replica of New York’s Electric Circus in Florence. “Performing at Space was a career milestone for the artists who played there. Production companies would even send us bands to test their appeal. In no particular order, some of the bands included: CANNED HEAT, RENAISSANCE, AUDIENCE, RORY GALLAGHER, VAN DER GRAAF GENERATOR, FIELDS, JOHN SURMAN, TOAD. To stay up to date with the latest music from overseas, we would travel to Lugano at least once every six months because that was where we could buy imported records. There was a real quest for music back then; now everything is different.”

HIT PARADE OF THE MOST PLAYED TRACKS: Among the tracks that were popular at Space at the time: Satisfaction (Rolling Stones), Leaving on a Jet Plane (Peter, Paul & Mary), Cocaine (Eric Clapton).

MEMORY: “One Sunday around 2:30 PM, Nada showed up at the door with her mother. She had recently won Sanremo with ‘Ma che freddo fa’ and wanted to enter early to rehearse. Unrecognized, she was left outside until 3:00 PM.” Fun fact: “Do you want to know how I realized it was time to quit? One evening, I was at the booth and two young girls approached me and said: ‘Excuse me, Sir…’ I thought to myself: you can’t call a DJ ‘Sir’…”